This past week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia granted a request by the White House to delay a decision over whether it will fight for or withdraw from litigation involving an Obama-era rule to reduce ozone levels that lead to ground-level smog. The current ozone rule, which was finalized in 2015, sets the standard at 70-parts per billion. To that end, legislation has been introduced by conservative lawmakers that would lift the Obama-era rule. As it stands now, state and metropolitan governments would need to be in compliance with the 70-parts per billion standard by 2025. The agency has also said that the Obama-era ozone rules would produce benefits of $3 billion to $6 billion a year while the cost of it would be about $1.4 billion annually.

Source: Forbes April 16, 2017 12:00 UTC